1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gaming machine such as a slot machine or the like in which symbols arranged in a plurality of rows are variably displayed.
2. Related Art
Conventionally known as a gaming machine which pays out media used in a game such as medals, currencies, and so on (hereinafter, referred to as “coins”) is a slot machine. The slot machines of this kind include one having a plurality of reels equipped with symbols on their outer peripheral surfaces (mechanical reels) and one having a plurality of reels (image-type or video-type reels) displayed on a display. Such slot machines are disclosed, for example, in Japanese PCT Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2002-537874 (Patent Document 1) and so on, in which a predetermined operation performed by a player causes the reels on the display to start scrolling to thereby circularly display symbols arranged in a predetermined order. Then, at the time when all of the reels are stopped, coins are paid out according to the combination of the symbols on an activated line (pay line) on the display.
Further, in many slot machines of this kind, two kinds of games, a base game and a feature game (for example, a free game or the like) are prepared.
The feature game is a game having a payout rate of coins higher than that of the base game, and the player plays the base game while looking forward to the game shifting to the feature game.